Unraveled, Week 42/2024

It is Wednesday, and though Kat is on vacation this week and not hosting a formal link-up, I can't let a week go by without an Unraveling post.

My sweater doesn't look all that different from how it did on Monday, though it's been getting attention each evening. Molly and I have finished watching all of Gilmore Girls, so we're taking a little break from series for the time being and watching romcoms in between episodes of The Great British Baking Show. It makes for good knitting time. I've also turned the heel and started the gusset on the second mother-in-law sock:

and I dug out the skein I wanted for the next pair of socks (the design idea I mentioned):

This is LolaBean Yarn Co. String Bean (75/15 superwash merino/nylon) in the colorway Troll-la, which might have been a special/limited edition. In any case, the pattern idea involves lace, so I didn't want self-striping or anything heavily variegated, so I hope this will work. I still need to sketch out a chart before I swatch, and I'm not even winding the yarn until I finish the current socks -- but I am keeping the skein out where I can see it as motivation.

I'm happy to report that the week has, thus far, been fairly calm, though the power went out unexpectedly for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon for no apparent reason, giving me some unexpected crafting time -- no power means no work email! I pulled a book from my Kindle library and plied the skein of mystery wool:

I ended up with approximately 159 yards of chain-plied fingering weight from 55 grams. It looks like it will work quite well for beards and various other gnome-related needs, plus now I have used up another random ball of wool.

There's been some excellent reading happening this week. I have finished two books and am getting close to the end of two more.

First was the next Read With Us selection, Intermezzo. At the last Zoom, the book was announced ahead of its publication, so I went into my Libby app and tagged the book "notify me" so that I'd get an alert when the library had it. I happened to see the notification pop up on my phone and immediately put the book on hold, making me third in line for it, so I didn't have to wait long (and I did think about delaying it, given that the discussion isn't happening until early next year, but thought I could always reread it if I need to). This is the story of two brothers, Peter and Ivan, who are a decade apart in age and in very different places in life, and when we meet them, their father has just died after a long illness. The story is told in shifting perspectives, and through following the thoughts and experiences of both brothers, we learn a lot about their history, how their relationship with one another has evolved, and how they are both dealing (or not) with their grief. This was only my second time reading a book by Sally Rooney, and I wasn't terribly impressed by the first one. I found this new novel to be a bit of a slow burn for me; I was kind of confused at first, particularly by Peter's sections, as his thoughts were more rambling and full of incomplete sentences. But once I got about halfway through, I had a better sense of my bearings in terms of the two brothers and their voices, such as they are. I can understand why some people have trouble with Rooney's writing (she doesn't use quotation marks around speech, for instance), but I think it's something you can adapt to. I really enjoyed this one, and I'm sure I'll appreciate it even more after the discussion. I gave it 4 stars.

Next, I went on the hunt for audiobooks on NetGalley because I was caught up on podcasts and had a wait for the next audiobook I wanted to read from the library. I can't remember where I first heard about Quarterlife; I must've seen someone bookmark it and it showed up in my feed. But after spending the summer with A Suitable Boy, this seemed like an excellent pairing. Like "the brick," it's largely a story of young people searching for meaning and purpose in their lives, but instead of dealing with the echoes of Partition and colonialism, they are contending with the impacts of economic meltdowns and rising nationalism -- as well as the same issues associated with caste and religion that have not gone away. The narrative centers three 20-somethings: Naren, who has studied and worked in the United States and returned to India following news of changes in political power; Amanda, a white New Englander feeling a need to escape her life and contribute to the betterment of society; and Rohit, Naren's younger brother, a filmmaker exploring politics and his family history. There's a lot going on in this book, with many other characters and side stories introduced and a lot of discussion of politics, caste, and religion. I'm not sure if my difficulty in following was due to the sheer volume of information, my lack of familiarity with Indian politics, or that I was listening rather than reading with my eyes; it was likely a combination of all three. I'm sure that readers who could appreciate the details and the nuance got a lot more out of the novel than I did. Despite my confusion, however, I could appreciate the skill of the author in tackling so much and in getting inside the heads of such an array of characters. I gave it 3 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for providing me with an advanced listener copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I'm nearing the end of another NetGalley ARC, Awake in the Floating City, and Louise Erdrich's newest novel, The Mighty Red. I expect I'll have a review of both by this time next week.

What are you making and reading this week?